


sleepless nights

by dragonesdepapel



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Comfort, F/F, Fluff, Gen, Insomnia, Redeemed Catra, Sharing a Bed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-23
Updated: 2019-11-01
Packaged: 2020-12-31 18:43:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21150425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonesdepapel/pseuds/dragonesdepapel
Summary: She doesn’t know where her feet are taking her until she reaches the room, but once she’s there she realizes how obvious the answer was.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So I wrote this -you guessed it-, on a night I couldn't sleep. I thought it would be a fun writing exercise to figure out each how pairing would deal with the same situation, so the chapters here work as separate units. I have two more chapters kinda done but I'm only allowing myself to edit and post them once I'm done studying for my exam tomorrow :P

Adora can’t sleep. She’s been trying for hours. She really has, ok? She has tried clearing her mind of the things that worry her, she has tried counting her breaths, she has tried _everything_. But nothing is working, and she's just about to rip the guts out of this mattress. Which would be bad, since Glimmer had to order it specially from the only place in Bright Moon where they don’t make those ridiculous fluffy mattresses, and she probably wouldn’t appreciate having to fetch another one.

But not doing anything with her hands is driving her crazy, so she pushes one of them against her forehead. She pushes and pushes until the pressure on her skin makes her forget about all the things she’s trying very hard not to think about. It’s not a good solution, her head will start aching soon; it isn’t even infallible, some thoughts scape the tightness of her hand anyway, she can’t hope to catch them all. She lets out a long, deep breath.

Moving, she decides that she needs to get moving. Bow is always going on and on about how she needs to stay in bed if she wants to have any hope of sleeping, but Bow isn’t here, and Bow hasn’t been consumed by the horrible, awful thoughts all night, like Adora has, so she doesn’t feel guilty about ignoring his advice this once. In any case, she’s been in bed for at least a couple of hours, so she thinks even Bow would understand.

She kicks off the covers, picks up her sword from the side of the bed, and heads to the hallway.

She walks as slowly as she can in an attempt to both, calm herself, her mind, and her racing heart; and to avoid alerting anyone of midnight walk.


	2. Catra

She doesn’t know where her feet were taking her until she reaches the room, but once she’s there she realizes how obvious the answer was. Still, she hesitates, hands itching to grab the doorknob but too nervous to do it. Things had changed so much, is this still allowed?

She turns to leave, her hands falling defeatedly to her side, when she hears the faintest of sounds coming from inside. She rushed in, sword out, _for the honor of __greyskull_ already in her throat. Something collides with her as soon as she’s in, knocking the air out of her lungs and leaving her to fall to the ground.

The next think she knows, there’s something sharp on her neck, someone is  p ining her to the ground, and  Catra’s face is hovering over her s .

“Adora?”

“Catra?”

“ _ Adora! _ What are you doing here?” her voice ha s that high - pitched quali ty that Adora has missed so much. The one that means surprise and slight irritation, the one she hadn’t hear d for months after leaving the Horde.

She can feel her whole body realizing at the sound of it. “I couldn’t sleep,” she says simply. 

Catra rolls her eyes at her “Well duh, I mean why did ran in here with that dumb sword out? Do you _want_ me to rip your silly head off?”

“ That’s a completely different question from the one you made.”

Catra rolls her eyes again, and Adora can feel a smile pulling at the corner of her lips. “I heard some noise, I thought you were in trouble.”  Now that  Catra has made her think about the sword, she realizes that her hand is on a weird angle, trapped between the floor and  Catra’s leg. Holding onto it is a little hard, and it hurts too, so she lets go of it.

Catra starts speaking again, but she interrupts herself in the middle of it. “You know what? I don’t even know why I asked.”

She gets up from their position on the floor a nd holds her hand out for Adora who is  aloready expecting it.  Catra starts moving again before she’s even put both her feet on the  gound . She picks up the sword and throws it over her shoulder,  ADora catches it easily by the hilt.  Catra’s tail gently caresses the inner side of her wrist, a clear invitation.

T he smile has made a full appearance by now  as  Adora trails after her. She leaves the sword behind, leaving it on a nightstand that close to her, but nowhere near the actual bed. It makes her realize that none of the furniture is where it should. She has half a mind to ask about it, but thinks better of it, the answer can wait till tomorrow, when the shadows the project on the floor don’t look as menacing.

“ Ni ght  dum b face ,”  Catra calls from her position near the foot of the bed. 

Adora tugs at the sheets, trying to get them as close as high as possible. “ Goodnight,  Catra .”


	3. Glimmer

She doesn’t know where her feet are taking her until she reaches the door. This corridor might look exactly like every other one on the castle but Adora grew up in a labyrinth of greys and pipelines and she could make her way to this particular hallway with her eyes closed. (A thing she did, once.) (It freaked everyone out.) (Including herself.) 

She gently pushes the door open. A warm light welcomes her, but the soft snoring tells her that Glinmer is still asleep. She surveys the room, mentally planning her route to the hanging bed. 

The jumps are easy, and she’s quickly laying next to her sleeping girlfriend.

“Adora?” 

“Shh, you are asleep.” 

She doesn’t bother with opening her eyes, “Not anymore,” she mumbles. Her hand reaches blindly, so Adora helps her secure it around her waist. Glimmer makes a sound of appreciation somewhere near the back of her neck.

“I thought we agreed that you’d stop leaving your light on?” 

Glimmer ignores the question, but opens one eye to look at her. “You know you could just sleep here every night, right?” 

“I know, thank you.” 

Glimmer's eyes are already closed again “Just checking.” 

It was true, Adora knew that no one would bat an eye if she moved her stuff to Glimmer’s room and called it a day. But it wasn’t about that. Adora had shared her room with at least a dozen people for most of her life. She had shared her bed with Catra for almost as long. 

The first night on Bright Moon, she hadn’t been able to sleep at all. The following ones had been better, but not by much. She hadn’t wanted her new friends to know the reason for her exhaustion, but she had finally had to reveal the truth after she had started falling asleep on the breakfast table. 

Bow and Glimmer had then helped her by having sleepovers every night until she had been finally able to sleep a whole night by herself. But even then, she would sometimes jolt awake with her chest tight with fear, a dagger under her pillow and her sword under the bed. 

She's doing much better now. The nightmares might still wake her up occasionally, but she knows how to deal with them now. She needed this, she needed to know she could do it on her own. And everything else failed, she could make her way to Glimmer’s room, and she knew it’d be alright. 

“Sweet dreams,” she whispered. Glimmer answered by hugging her a little bit tighter. 


	4. Adora

She doesn’t know where her feet are taking her until she finds herself before the kitchen doors. She carefully pushes them open. The faint glow of the overnight lights reveals that she’s the only one seeking refuge  inside it , for the time being at least.

She steps inside, her hand is quick in locating the light switch as she leaves the sword on the counter. She hums to herself as she examines the cupboards, her hand hovering over the tea box for a few seconds before settling on vanilla and honey. She takes extra care in heating up the milk before adding it to her cup.

She had been surprised to learn that the table and chairs had been added to the room long before her arrival to Bright Moon. Apparently, Glimmer’s dad, Micah, had been a fan of late-night snacking (but not of standing while doing it). She had thought them impractical the first time she saw them, an unnecessary clutter in a place that demanded efficiency, but she has learned to appreciate them for their emotional value.

She drags the chair closer to the table. She lets the warmth of the cup seep onto her fingers for a little while. She doesn’t wait enough though, since she burns her tongue on the first sip. She sighs as she wishes her taste buds goodbye for the next couple of hours.

She blows over it almost petulantly, and her next sip doesn’t sting. She takes her time, mindful to appreciate all the flavors. A part of her is still paying attention to the door behind her, to the noises that come from it. Sometimes she doubts that she’ll ever be able to turn that part off. The tea makes it way more bearable though.

She’s soon way more relaxed than she was when she started. Her heart isn’t pounding in her ears, her stomach has finally released the knot it was holding itself in. It’s time to try to sleep again.

Adora hums again as she washes her cup, the last step of her routine. She makes it as far as the turning off the light before she stops, turns them on again and twirls in place to get back her sword. She also stops dead in her tracks the second time she reaches the doorway, this time in thoughtfulness. She goes back to the cupboards and carefully picks up a spicy tea. She leaves it next to a cup in the counter. She hunts down a bag of cookies to keep it company.

She takes a last glance, making sure everything is where it should be. It is, so she takes a deep breath and starts making her way back to her bed.

**Author's Note:**

> Ok so so far I have Catra, then there's Glimmer, and a bonus chapter. If anyone wants to prompt me a character/situation/ship/platonic pairing/etc on the comments feel free to do so.
> 
> On a different note, I started looking around to see if anyone had thought of organizing a gift exchange event for the holiday season? It seems like the answer is no lol, but I'm so into the idea that I might organize it myself if enough people show interest. So please if you a) know of anyone else who is already putting something together b) would like to participate or c) would like to help put something together, here's my [tumblr.](http://thebravething.tumblr.com)


End file.
